a binding format where the spine and
a small part of the sides or small outer corners are covered
in one material, while the sides are covered in a second
material, e.g., half-bound in leather with marbled paper
sides or half-bound in blue cloth and blue paper sides
(GG, ED, JC)

a photomechanical reproduction; a relief-printing
block prepared by exposing a photosensitive emulsion on
a metal plate to a photographic negative with a screen
in-between to reduce the image to a tonal range of black
to white dots or squares; plate is mounted on wood block
in order to be type high (GG, BG)

traditionally, paper made by hand on
a pair of wood and wire moulds consisting of two bottom
wooden frames with supporting ribs and one separate deckle
that fits both bottoms; handmade paper can be made from
any cellulose fiber from the best-quality wood to poorly
prepared rags; handmade paper, like all other paper, has
grain, but compared to machine-made paper, tends to be
square, i.e., expands almost equally in both directions
when wetted out; can have watermarks or not and is either
laid or wove (GG, APPA, DH)

headband are stitches made with silk,
linen or cotton thread(s) around a cord or band, either
a strip of thick leather or board; each stitch ends in
a bead on the head edge; during stitching, the headband
is occasionally anchored to the book by drawing the thread
through the back and around the kettle stitches (and occasionally,
to the boards); performed after backing, edge trimming,
and gilding, but before the back is lined or hollow applied;
also self-made or purchased headband of fabric-covered
thick cord, strip of board, or leather, adhered by an
extension of the fabric to the back after backing and
before lining; both types follow the curve of back at
the head and fit snuggling up against the head edge, the
beads lying on top, partially hiding the sometimes imperfect
gilt edge at the curve; if a headcap is formed, the headband
fits under the cap and supports it, sometimes protruding
slightly from it; also tailband, although “headbands” refer
to such bands at the head and foot (GG, ED, JC)

fine, plain-woven linen (and later, cotton)
white or off-white fabric, usually starch-filled and glazed;
used for book cloth and as the carrier for gummed-tape
(GG)

hollow back

instead of adhering the spine-covering
material directly to the flat back of the book with sawn-in
or recessed, cords; a hollow tube of usually strong brown
paper is used; a piece of paper the length of the back
and about 3 times its width (after rounding and backing),
after folding twice, the top two flaps are adhered, creating
a tube; after the back is lined and smoothed, the back
of the hollow is adhered to the back; it provides a cushion
for tooling, and because the spine-covering material is
adhered to the hollow, the back of the book flexes more
easily on opening and keeps the spine arched outward,
thus preventing wrinkling to the spine material; if false
raised bands are wanted, these are adhered to the outside
of the hollow before covering; hollows date from 1770
in France and 1800 in England; for heavy books, more layers
for the hollow may be required (GG, ED, JC)

practice of inserting an illustration
that is slightly wider than the text page so that the
excess at the gutter can be folded over to serve as a
guard (creating a stub); this plate can be wrapped around
the outside of a gathering or nested inside and sewn with
the rest of the book (GG)

a book containing illustration(s), either
printed along with the text, printed after or before the
text on the same page, e.g., intaglio print within letterpress-printed
text, or a separate, full-plate illustration hooked in
or tipped-in; in black and white or colored; also can
refer to tipped-in photographs (GG, JC)

Alternate terms:

halftone

intaglio

lithograph

photomechanical reproduction

relief

imbrication

book-cover decoration that consists of
overlapping leaves, tiles, or scales, as in fish scales
(GG)

imitation leather

simulated leather made from a thick,
coated paper or leather grain-patterned cloth (GG)

finely ground pigment(s) or dye(s) worked
into or mixed with a vehicle (oil for printing and printmaking
inks; gum water for pen work) (GG)

ink stamping

decoration or lettering done on book
cloth where a stiff ink is used instead of gold leaf;
in 19th-c. American publishers’ binding, black ink
was first used at the end of the 1860s, and toward the
end of the century, a full range of colored inks were
used, see Allen (1998); rather than applying the ink to
the cloth before stamping, the ink was applied to the
unheated stamp (GG, ED)

a decorative element, usually of leather
(and occasionally paper) that is pared or built-up to
the same thickness as the covering material and inset
into a cutout area in the latter after being adhered to
the sides; leather inlays are usually different color(s)
and texture(s) to the covering leather and often gold
tooled around the inlay edges to mask the join and to
heighten the effect of the inlay (GG, ED, JC )

one of the four printmaking processes,
the other three being relief, planographic or lithography,
and serigraphy (silk screen); images (in reverse, or wrong-reading)
are engraved and/or etched into the surfaces of highly
polished copper plates, see specific technique for more
information; once the image is complete, the surface of
the plate is covered in a stiff oil-based ink, and then
wiped away leaving behind ink in the incised lines, below
the surface of the plate; after its edges are beveled
with a file, the plate is then placed on the bed of the
intaglio printing press, a sheet of dampened paper is
placed on top followed by the sizing blanket and several
pieces of thick felt; the bed is then run between two
heavy iron cylinders, which forces the pliable paper down
into the inked lines, and the process from inking on is
repeated for the edition; after drying, the intaglio print
has several distinguishing characteristics: raised inked
lines on the recto and corresponding depressions on the
verso, and around the edges, a platemark from the beveled
edges of the plate; the texture of the paper inside the
plate area is much smoother than that of the margins;
depending on how much the surface of the plate has been
wiped, there might be a thin layer of ink covering all
or some areas of the background of the print, and this
is called “plate tone” (GG, JC, BG)

a press for printing intaglio plates,
no matter whether engraved or etched; thick iron bed which
moves between two heavy cylinders; the pressure forces
dampened paper down into the grooves in the plate where
the ink lies; the beveled edges of the plate are also
impressed into the paper forming the platemark; a series
of cushioning materials (sizing blanket followed by a
few thick felts) help to push the paper into the plate
(GG)

1. a tissue paper that is tipped onto
an illustration sheet near the gutter, usually an intaglio
print, to prevent abrasion to its delicate surface; occasionally
a caption or legend is printed on the verso of this sheet

2. a book is bound with alternating blank
and printed leaves, it is called interleaved (GG)

1. in western books, thin Japanese silk
tissue, often of gampi fiber, used an interleaf over intaglio
prints

2. Japanese vellum: used as a text or
printmaking paper; thick, soft, handmade paper with a
smooth surface, often of mitzumata fibers (GG, JC)

Alternate
terms:

1. Japanese silk tissue

2. Japan vellum

Jap vellum

Japon

job printer

a printing office whose primary work
involves taking on commissions to print projects for profit;
occasionally, publishes (pays for) work for profit; the
type of work done by job printers can range from large
books (rarely) to visiting cards (PG)

joint

the outside hinge area (often a groove)
that runs parallel to the back where the boards met the
spine; the joints allow the covers of the book to open
more easily; common to use terms hinge and joint interchangeably
(GG, ED, JC)

a grade of leather falling between calfskin
and cowhide, sometimes used in bookbinding (GG)

label

on the spine or upper cover of a book,
a pared piece of leather (often in a contrasting color
to the covering material) or paper on which is either
tooled or printed, respectively, some or all of the following
information: title, author, volume number, date of publication,
publisher’s name and/or location; leather adhered
to the book usually as an onlay (GG, ED, JC)

paper formed on a hand papermaking mould
where the wire cover is woven as in antique laid paper,
with the addition of a second, more-coarsely woven wire
cloth placed beneath; these two wire cloths are attached
with thin wire to the ribs underneath; as the watery pulp
is no longer attracted to the latter areas, there is no
difference in pulp accumulation; the paper is more evenly
dense across its surfaces and no dark shadows can be seen
in transmitted light (DH)

letterpress printing: the use of strips
of lead of varying lengths (measured in picas) and thicknesses
(measured in points, such as 2-pt., 3-pt., and 6-pt.,
the latter called a slug) to increase the space between
lines of type; type set without leading is “set
solid” (GG)

leaf

1. in a book, a folded piece of paper
has 2 leaves; one leaf is one of two halves of a folded
piece of paper

on inside of the joint, a strip of pared
leather is attached to the board under the pastedown,
is pushed down into the groove, and is then either sandwiched
between the endpapers and the first gathering or adhered
to the recto of the flyleaf; an embellishment, especially
on bindings with doublures (GG, JC)

from Gutenberg to the early decades of
the 19th c., the so-called common or joiner’s press
was made almost entirely of wood; by 1800, several English
and American inventors made improvements to the press
including changes to the power mechanism from a screw
to a toggle joint, and from wood to cast iron construction
but the basic method of printing remained the same; the
hand press was soon joined by a succession of cylinder,
rotary, and platen presses, operated by steam and then
electricity; for a history of letterpress printing presses,
see Moran (1973); the basic operation involves locking
forms of type, stereotype or electrotype plates, and/or
blocks of illustration onto the press bed (or around a
cylinder), inking up the relief printing surface, placing
the dampened paper onto the “type” and applying
pressure to transfer the ink from type to paper (GG, PG)

good-quality morocco with a large, open
grain and a high polish used for book covers (GG, JC)

Alternate
term:

French Cape levant

library binding

1. a stronger binding given to a book
that is sold to public libraries, due to the heavier use

2. a copy bound for a circulating library,
usually half leather

3. a rebound book with the back either
stab-sewn (very inflexible) or sewn through the fold (preferred),
with a new endpapers and cloth-covered case; lettering
in black or white ink or metal foil, usually only on the
spine (ED, JC)

refers to an edition (of usually deluxe
books) that is small in number, from less than a hundred
to several hundred; also denotes a book that will appear
in one edition only, and which will never be reprinted
in the same setting or materials (GG, JC)

Alternate
term:

numbered copy

limp binding

the covering material is not stiffened
by thick boards, although the pastedowns, if used, will
add to the stiffness; some limp bindings are only adhered
to the back of the book, remaining completely limp, often
considered a temporary binding; some limp vellum bindings
had “yapp” edges that flop over the edges
to protect the textblock (GG, ED, JC)

an intaglio process by which a line
image is created by a burin; the grooves below the surface
of the plate hold the ink; generally, a black line or
hatched areas on a white background; line quality is often
tapered at ends and more stilted compared to etched line
(BG)

an intaglio process by which a line
image is created by first coating a plate with a varnish,
and when dry, scratching through this layer with an etching
needle revealing the metal underneath; this plate is then
placed in an acid bath so that the exposed areas are eaten
away; these pitted areas hold the ink; generally, black
line/area on white background; line quality is often blunt
at both ends and drawing-like (BG)

2. sheets of paper used to cover boards
prior to attaching to the book, in order to counter the
warping of boards that occurs when the covering material
is adhered (GG, ED, JC)

lining

generally, pasting a piece of paper to
a board; in a tight-back binding, the attachment of a
variety of materials to the back of the book, including
the mull and paper, which after sanding, evens and smoothes
the surface of the back prior to covering; performed after
rounding and backing (GG, ED)

lithographic printing press

the press uses a scraper (as opposed
to a platen or cylinder) as the source of contact and
pressure to transfer the inked-up image to the paper;
the stone or metal plate carrying the lithographic image
is placed on the bed of the press, the sometimes dampened
paper is laid on top followed by blanket(s) and a piece
of tympan board (an oiled board), then the bed is cranked
under the wedge-shaped scraper, starting just short of
the top of the stone to just short of the bottom (to avoid
breaking the stone), which pushes the paper down onto
the printing surface to pick up the ink; because the paper
rests entirely on the printing surface, there is no edge
marks from the stone or plate, and only the area of the
paper pressed down by the scraper is flattened in texture (BG)

Latin: stone writing; a planographic
printing process invented by Alois Senefelder in 1796;
the lithographic image is created by drawing it (in reverse,
or wrong-reading) onto a prepared, thick slab of limestone
(or metal plate), and then etching the surface in such
a way as to render the image parts receptive to oil-based
ink but repellent to water while the nonprinting areas
are vice versa (BG)

a special character that looks like
the lowercase f, but without the right-hand cross stroke;
not used to begin or end of word, nor if 2 ss’s;
until 1749, the long s was used by all English (and American?)
printers, but by 1785, its use began to decline; the Philadelphia
type founders, Binny & Ronaldson were the first American
type founders to drop it as noted in their 1816 type specimen
book (GG)

machine-sewing

first practical, thread-sewing machine
(as compared to wire-stitching machine) was developed
by David Smyth, American, 1871, called Smyth sewing; machine
sews the gatherings together as well as sews through the
fold, securing all of the folios in the gathering together
(GG)

a decoration applied to paper that can
be used as endpapers, cover papers, and book edges; a
trough is filled with a carragheen moss or gum tragacanth
solution and on its surface is floated special watercolors
plus ox gall (which acts as a ??); depending on the pattern
of marbling required, the dots and circles of color are
combed or drawn into; sheets of paper to be marbled are
washed with alum water, which acts as a mordant for the
colors, allow to dry slightly, then floated on the marbling
solution, and lifted off and rinsed supported by a board
held at an angle to remove excess color and solution and
air dried; book edges, after trimming but before rounding
and backing, are clamped tightly, washed with alum water,
and placed onto the marbling solution, rinsed and dried
under pressure; often the marbled surface is waxed and
polished; for a description of marbling patterns, see
Loring (1952), Nicholson (1986); the workman who marbles
paper, the edges of books, or leather, is the “marbler” (GG, ED, JC)

1. the non-printed areas surrounding
the text: in traditional typographical design, each of
the four margins are of different sizes in relation to
the measure from textblock to edge; in ascending order
of depth: gutter, head, fore-edge, and tail; often in
the proportion, respectively, 2:3:4:6; larger tail margins
especially denote a deluxe edition; during rebinding,
the edges are often retrimmed and the head, outer (fore-edge),
and lower (tail) margins can be much reduced under the
plough, the inner or gutter margin remains the same (except
in stab-sewn library bindings when the text may disappear
into the gutter); margins serve as places for signature
marks (letters and numbers denoting order of gatherings),
folios (page numbers), margin notes, and headers

2. the excess board covering material
that become the turn-ins (GG, ED, JC)

fibers for a cheap paper made by debarking
trees and grinding them into sheds of wood, followed little
or no chemical processing; the resulting pulp, after beating,
contains much of the native lignin which causes the paper
to yellow and become brittle; in America, not used as
100% fiber component of paper until late 19th c.; often
mixed with rag paper to lower price (APPA)

an intaglio process by which a tonal
image is created by rocking in many directions a special
engraving tool; the plate is usually covered with tiny
pits which hold the ink, producing an velvety overall
black image; by scraping and burnishing parts of the mezzotint,
whiter areas within the dark background are produced,
hence the name meaning, middle or medium tint (BG)

mildew

a superficial, whitish, circular mold-growth
that occurs in damp, warm, and still environments; if
left unchecked, mildew will probably blossom into very
damaging mold-growth, usually evidenced by the presence
of other colors: red, green, yellow, purple, and black
(GG)

Alternate terms:

mold

mould (E.)

millboard

strong, brown binder’s board made
of recycled paper, rope, etc.; first made by hand in the
18th c., then on the cylinder papermachine in a thick
laminate, and once dry, the board is pressed (milled)
between a board calender which flattens and smoothes the
surface (APPA, ED)

the design of the opened book, two-page
spread especially the proportion of the margins to both
textblocks or of printed material on any pair of opposing
pages such as the title page and frontispiece

mitered corner

1. at the inside head and tail corners
of covers, the excess corner of covering material (leather,
paper, or cloth) is cut in such a way so that when the
material is turned in to the inside, the two edges meet
at a 45° angle to the corners

2. the 45° angle cut at the ends
of two adjoining pieces of brass rule to allow a seamless
fit at a 90° corner (GG, JC)

moiré

wavy pattern seen in watered silk, a
material occasionally used on doublures (RE)

monogram

a design, plain or intertwined, based
on a person’s initial(s); used to identify that
person’s work or ownership (GG)

morocco

a fine, hard-wearing leather for bookbinding
made from sumac-tanned goatskin; the best quality is hand-boarded
to bring up the grain, glazed, and polished; often dyed
orange, green, blue and deep red; early importation through
Turkey from the Levant (countries bordering on the E.
Mediterranean) associated the name “turkey,” but
this is a misnomer (GG, JC)

binding decoration featuring a multicolored
and/or multi-textured pattern made up of leather inlays
and/or onlays, often gold tooled around the edges to mask
the join and to heighten the effect; occasionally painted;
emulating the bindings of A.M. Padeloup (GG, ED, JC)

1. a two-part, wooden frame with a wire
cover attached to the top of the bottom part for making
paper by hand, while the top part of the mould is called
the deckle, a simple frame that fits snugly on the bottom
part; traditionally, paper was formed on a pair of bottoms
with one deckle that fit both, with identical laid or
wove wire covers as well as watermarks; the latter practice
allowed the vatman (the paper-former) to continuously
form a sheet on one of the pair while the coucher transferred
the newly formed sheet off onto a felt

2. a wood and metal, two-part, handheld
apparatus for the casting of type from a separate copper
matrix inserted into the mould

3. a plaster cast or paper flong taken
from a form of set type and used to cast a stereotype
plate of the form, which is used as the printing surface

the stub-like extension on a folded map,
chart, or other kind of illustration, used to tip it into
a book along the gutter; the nib helps the plate to open
completely (GG)

octavo

a book format consisting, traditionally,
of a sheet of paper folded three times, each at a right
angle, so that there are 8 leaves and 16 pages; in modern
practice, a book size ranging from 7 x 7.25 and 11.5 x
8.25 inches (GG, JC)

Alternate
terms:

8°

8vo

Oct.

onlay, onlaid

a decorative element, usually of leather
that is pared until very thin and adhered onto the latter
already adhered to the sides; leather onlays are usually
contrasting color(s) and/or textures to the covering leather
and often gold-tooled around the join edges to mask the
transition and to heighten the effect of the onlay; printed
paper onlays were popular in the latter half of the 19th
c. (GG, ED, JC)

the flesh side of calfskin or split sheepskin
treated to make a velvety or suede finish; used for small
volumes of poetry; used extensively by the Roycroft Shop
in the first decades of the 20th c. as a standard binding
material with a thin cardboard as a stiffener and watered-silk
doublures; in most cases, the latter have deteriorated
badly, presumably because the leather was not good quality
(GG)

Alternate
term:

suede leather

oriental leaf

cheap leaf substitute for gold leaf,
made of an alloy of bronze and brass, and used in casing
work (GG)

a designation for those books published
between 1770 and 1830 (before the introduction of book
cloth) that remain in their original, “temporary” bindings,
usually with paper-covered covers and paper labels; other
bibliographers note that the presence of paper labels
denotes a “permanent” binding, see Sadleir
(1990) (GG)

orihon

an oriental-style binding consisting
of an accordion-folded text (many sheets of paper joined
together) stab- or side-sewn along the back from the front
to the back with silk thread in a variety of decorative,
whipstitched patterns (ED)

Alternate
term:

oriental side-sewing

ornamentation

decoration that is usually non-pictorial
in nature, such as geometric designs, arabesques, ribbon-
and strapwork, etc.; also the presence of contrasting
color and textures, of course, gold

Alternate
term:

adornment

embellishment

padded sides

a binding where cotton wool (raw cotton
or cotton batting) is placed between the leather and the
board (GG)